You're not the only one
by SilentHeartedOnes
Summary: Alex Rider. The one name anyone who was anyone in the espionage business knew. The kid who had the luck of the devil and was twice as charming. Anyone who was in the business this young would be well known of course. So what does Alex do when he finds out he isn't the only one like him in a middle of a mission, complete with a deranged millionaire of course.
1. Chapter 1

_You killed me! You killed me! Blew me and my life to pieces, all because you were so selfish. You should have let me go that first day. You killed me, you killed me!_

Alex woke up screaming. Gasping hungrily for the cool night air, his chest heaving and hands shaking. The door burst open with a bang and Alex leapt up, swinging wildly at his attacker. His fist caught their side with a smack, gaining a grunt and curse in return. The attacker grabbed his fists so Alex lashed out with his leg, he missed in the dark and lost his balance, falling back onto the bed.

"Alex, Alex calm down. It's me, okay. It's Ben, it's Fox. You are safe. You are home in London. Breathe okay, just calm down and breathe." The attacker said in a soothing voice. No, not an attacker, Ben.

Alex drew in a long shuddering breath and let it out, dissolving into sobs in Ben's arms. He had been having the nightmares since he was blackmailed into becoming a spy. As soon as Jack was killed, they became a thousand times worse. It was one of the reasons he hadn't stayed in America with the Pleasures for more than a week.

A week was it all it took for his nightmare to drive them away.

So he came back, back to England, back to MI6, back being a boy turned spy. That had been over a year ago, he was sixteen now. The first few months had been rough, he had done everything possible to hide his night terrors, there was nothing worse than looking weak in front of some random agent that had been assigned to watch over him. The nightmares were harder to fight off than Alex thought. So instead he went without sleep, sure he took little half naps here and there, but he never actually went to sleep.

This, of course, backfired when he collapsed in the middle of gym, because of course '6 was still sending him to school. School in itself was hell, Tom had moved to Italy to live with his brother, everyone was calling him a druggie, a creep.

Him passing out for half a day in a 'safe' place gave Jones a wake-up call, and finally got it into her head that there was no being a normal teenage boy for him, there was no not being a spy, there was no being handed schoolbooks and a babysitter and going on like nothing happened.

So the changes happened.

He moved in with Ben, he was the only person in the agency that Alex actually trusted _slightly_ , apart from Smithers, but the genius lived in the lab. He was given a therapist, an Asian woman from Scotland who was called Kellie. That did not go well at first, it took a week's worth of sessions for him to even talk. But slowly he talked, he was getting better at talking to her. Letting Ben help him with his nightmares was both the hardest and best decision Alex had made, they dwindled from nightly, to weekly, to now monthly - if that.

He was pulled out of school, they did get him a whole host of tutors, not just for your normal school subjects either, he was being taught diplomacy, his black belt in karate was being matched in various martial arts, complemented with weapons training. Alex was now proficient in various languages and had gained certificates in first aid.

Jones had made a contract for him, giving him pay for the missions he had done and a promise to not send him on missions until he was ready, both physically and mentally. He had gone into her office eight months ago telling her that he was ready, signed off by Kellie and the doctors that had been helping him recover from his previous injuries.

Jones had allowed him to start on the condition that he passed a week's worth of training at Brecon Beacons. Alex had agreed so long as it was at the same time as Bens refresher training. Wolf had given him stony silence, though the new guy, Seal, had talked to him from the get go. Seal and Fox managed to talk some sense into Wolf, Snake and Eagle were okay with him, given that the two had spent their leave practically living at Bens. The first time the two of them had shown up at Bens doorstep was a bit awkward.

Once Wolf was knocked down a couple dozen pegs the week went by smoothly. In eight months Alex had completed four major missions - three of them with Ben as a partner - and a dozen or so minor missions, all of which were done with Ben.

Life was good as it could get for Alex. Blissful almost, when he wasn't on a mission that was. But those few times monthly when he did have a nightmare, that was bad.

Alex looked up at Ben, wiping away the tears with the back of his hand, pushing Bens arms off and leaning against the wall, his head tilted back, eyes glued to the ceiling.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ben asked in that voice he only uses when Alex has a nightmare.

Alex shook his head.

"Kitchen?" Ben suggested. Alex nodded, waiting until Ben was at the door before he rose slowly to his feet, stiff like he always was after a nightmare. He took a few deep breaths, trying to clear his head. Giving up he headed into the kitchen, dropping down into his chair at the table and resting his chin on his folded arms. Ben came and placed a cup of tea in front of him, sitting down in the chair next to Alex.

"You gonna talk tonight kid?" Ben asked gently. Alex shrugged his shoulders in reply, not looking up.

Ben waited for a minute, then three, a few more passed yet neither of them had moved. After nearly twenty minutes Alex finally spoke up.

"It... it was her again." He murmured quietly. If Ben wasn't a spy he probably would have missed it. Hell, Alex almost missed the words tumbling quietly from his lips.

"You haven't had that one for a while," Ben said, a puzzled look on his face. He was right, Alex hadn't dreamt about Jack for a while. She had been in his dream for months after her death, disappearing only when he had been seeing Kellie for a couple weeks. She helped him deal with it. After that, the only time he had seen Jack in any of his nightmares was around the anniversary of her death.

"Her birthday was yesterday." Said Alex, the weighted words dropping to the table top. He wiped away the tears that threatened to start falling again, put his half-full cup in the sink and heading up to bed.

He might trust Ben with his life, doesn't mean that he wanted to relive his past at two am. If it happened again he would get help, but for now, all he wanted to do was sleep.

-#-#-

 _ **So, finally got a new fanfiction started. I've been playing around with this one for about a year or so - just in case you're wondering, this is the seventh first chapter and the only one I've actually wanted to publish.**_

 _ **xox - Silence**_


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning, Alex was thankful that he had gone back to bed rather than hashing things out with Ben. He had taken a couple of sleeping pills and got a few more hours in, but unfortunately not enough that he didn't feel a little like hell when he was dragged into the royal and general bank at eight in the morning. Ben had tried to talk to him this morning and had quickly given up after a few death glares that threatened bodily harm, Alex was _not_ in the mood for talking.

Which was half the reason that a scowl was fixed on his face, making the bags under his eyes look even worse than they were, the thoughts of jack and what he would be doing if MI6 hadn't come storming into his life had brought forth a few other memories of his more unsavoury missions. From the looks of the people in front of him, it seemed like he would be heading off on another.

"Good morning gentlemen." Said Ms. Jones finally looking up from her paperwork, there had been a bombing in Argentina, and he was probably one of the few agents not tracking down leads - the culprits had supposedly made their way into Britain, every agency that Alex had contact with was in complete disarray - he had been told that while he had the highest success rate in the industry, he was not yet cleared for paperwork not pertaining to his own mission. Paperwork was one of the few things that he was quite happy being told not to do, though he suspected that their impromptu meeting had some relation to the so far unidentified attackers.

"So is this about what's been happening the past two weeks?" Ben asked, disrupting his musings on the topic.

"No, not that we know of. But there is something that we and another interested party are worried might be slipping under the radar. Do either of you know anything about Patrick Langly?" Jones said in reply. Alex had heard a little about the man, he was rich, he was famous, he was CEO of Langly Sports. but that was where his knowledge ended.

"He's famous for many things, but that's not why he's on our radar. He and his company are suspected to be one of the largest centres for illegal arms trade, human trafficking, animal trafficking, drug trafficking and a whole host of other questionable items moving through his hands. Nobody can legally pin him for anything, no one has sufficient evidence - MI6 and ASIS are the only two groups that have an in-depth idea of the situation. The one that concerns us the most is the arms trade moving into the middle east, which if you have been keeping up with the news is where a large portion of our army is at the moment, along with the armies of several other countries. We have no idea where the arms are coming from, or how the get there, our biggest lead is Patrick Langly." She paused for a breath, looking to see that both of her agents had a grasp of the situation.

"So why am I being called in then? Seems like a surveillance job. Anyone could do that." Alex said, scowl still on his face. He was not impressed that he had been dragged into dealing with something Smithers could do from his bloody office.

"I was just getting to that," Jones said standing up and retrieving two thick folders from the shelf. She handed them both to him, giving Ben a briefing sheet. Alex only just resisted laughing at the affronted look on Ben's face. "The first folder contains the mission information, you can share it with agent Daniels, but neither is to leave you office, Alex. No one but the three people in this room have seen them and nobody but us are going to see them. The second has information on your partner for the next eight months at least."

"Eight months! What on earth is so drastic that I need to be on mission for that long?" He exclaimed. His longest mission was three weeks in his first year, the only one he had been on longer was four and a half - mainly due to being captured just as he was heading home.

"That might be a bit long, even for someone as skilled as Alex is Jones. Don't you think I should at least be there in case?" Ben said. Even the older of the two spies was confused. He had been trying not to laugh at his partners scowl for most of the briefing, but this was worth putting his full attention to.

"Did either of you read the paper this morning?" Ms. Jones questioned, picking her copy back up and reading it. She picked up her cup of tea, taking a sip before speaking again. "I think that you'll find the sports section quite interesting."

Even after having spent nearly a month as her employee, Alex was still sometimes caught off guard by the woman. She liked to lead you down tunnels and holes, through a maze that only became clear when you had made it through. Jones was definitely a different person when she wasn't under the rule of Mr. Blunt, who had been much more, blunt in his briefings.

"Let's see, right on the front page of the sports section 'Patrick Langly announces that he will be funding and running the world's first co-ed junior Olympics, a sporting not unlike its adult counterpart - bar the fact that he has decided that there should be no divide between the girls and the boys sections. Instead, athletes will have to compete in mixed teams, solo sports like most of the athletics events, for example, would be done in a relay style. Some critics are wondering where he would find the room for this but Mr. Langly announced in a press conference this morning that he would be turning his own group of Mediterranean islands into a state of the art training and competing facilities. The largest of these islands is about the size of Malta. Most are applauding his move to help grow a love of sports in the world's youth and bringing together any country that feels free to send over athletes. In fact, Langly has offered up nearly a billion dollars in transport funding for those that need it. Though critics are wondering if the business icon has another agenda up his sleeve' if you tell me that something about a man on our watchlist doing something like that in an area of the world that is virtually unsupervised isn't fishy, I am going to regret saying that I'm sending over my best spy." Jones deadpanned.

Alex snatched at the paper reading the rest of the article himself, Langly was also adding in a whole host of sports - anything that was played by 'more than five countries' was fair game as far as the billionaire was concerned.

"So what, I'm becoming some kind of athlete or something?" He asked putting down the paper.

"Looks like it Rider." Ben muttered as he looked through the first of the two folders, which he had snatched from Alex as soon as he picked up the paper.

"A rower, to be specific. You have had some experience in this sport haven't you? Half a season about two months ago." Jones said.

"you do realize that I never even went to a regatta, don't you? What even make you think that this is all a front, the guy owns a sporting empire - of course he's going to do something like this if he wants to, he has enough money to pull it off." Alex pointed out.

"We believe that this 'JCO' is a front for an operation bigger than any we have seen before, there will be close to a hundred thousand people there, the vast majority of which are children who will be too caught up in the limelight to notice huge shipments of drugs and weapons travelling through. The location is also prime for this sort of an attack, it's in the Mediterranean which makes it easy to pull off a trade like this. We have heard rumours that weapons are being amassed in various places in Northern Africa. It's quite likely that many people are looking to sell and buy, if there's already hundreds of people there they aren't going to notice a couple dozen arms dealers."

"Fair point. Who exactly would Alex be partnered with, you said earlier that ASIS is involved with this."Ben butted in before Alex could make a smart arse comment and get them stick in the office for longer than they had to be, which at the rate they were going would be close to dinner time anyway.

"They are. Well, more specifically an agent of theirs is in a prime position to do this. You have their folder, and they have yours. Your entire folder." Jones said to Alex.

He immediately opened the folder. If some stranger was going to hold that much over him, he was sure as hell going to get an edge on them as well. He stopped after reading the first few words, realising that even though this language had the latin alphabet, it most certainly wasn't a language he recognized.

"Is this some kind of joke?" He queried, trying to make head or tail of the strange language.

"If it's any comfort, the copy your partner has is in Russian, a language they don't speak. They can choose to translate it for you and you can choose to translate yours for them. The files are more of an insurance policy than anything, though of course you could just go to a translator - not that it will be easy to find someone who knows the language well enough to do so this side of the equator."

"So this is some kind of twisted trust exercise?"

"Yes." Jones said, the finality of the word bringing an end to the conversation. "Now out of my office, you have some reading to do Agent Rider, Agent Daniels you have a meeting with Crawley and Smithers, and I have fourteen possible new recruits to interview."

So Alex and Ben left. Heading for the elevators, Ben went down whilst he went up. His office was on one of the higher floors, it was also one of the few that had windows - bullet proofed. of course, he's not _stupid_. It was a nice office, so long as he got his work done and kept everything organized Jones didn't really care how he decorated it. The same went for any agent that had a proper office.

It was one of the things that had changed when Jones took over MI6. Everyone got much better pay, as it turned out that Blunt wasn't only responsible for tearing Alex's life apart, but also robbing nearly millions of everyone in the agency. Blunt was now in prison, and would be for a very long time.

Alex plopped down on the couch in the corner of his office, grabbing a can of coke and curling up to read through the first folder. It was so thick that he had to take out the first twenty or so pages out to read so that the other hundred wouldn't go all over the place.

It was the same standard thing that he got in every other mission file for the first fifty pages, but when he got to the last fifty all it said was 'your plane leaves at 0800 on Tuesday the 14 of May. Good luck.' before switching to the unrecognizable language again.

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me."


	3. Chapter 3

Alex emerged from the airport into the mild heat of May in Perth, Australia at four o'clock in the afternoon on a Thursday, to find a black SUV with a driver holding a placard with his name on it. All of this he was expecting, in his slightly sleep deprived haze - paranoia is a killer for long haul flights and layovers in strange countries. He also expected the drive through the city to a nondescript building in an equally nondescript part of town. He expected to be led through the building past busy men and women with stacks of files and phones held to ears, up to the office of Ethan Brooke, a man he hoped he would never see again in his life.

What he was not expecting was to see a ten-year-old girl with short black hair in a very serious meeting with the head of the CAD, in a large office overlooking the beach.

"... trial races start in two months and this agent has rowed for less than a month, not to mention the fact that they have never seen a regatta. Hell, Coach isn't letting novies into this unless they're nothing short of a prodigy, it will be a miracle if the other agent passes as an experienced rower. I'm going to need at least a week - which, will still be bare minimum." She said rapidly. "I just don't know if I can get us both there, it will be hard enough for me without having the unknown factor."

It was around that point that Brooke held up his hand, silencing the girl.

"I must warn you before you continue in your 'we are all doomed' spiel, that we have had a guest for the past minute. Agent Rider I presume?" He said "You sound taller."

"Ah, yes this is Alex, who is she?" He asked pointing to the young girl who had turned around. She had striking blue eyes and was covered head to toe in faint freckles. She was wearing a grey tank top with a blue tree on it, black spandex pants and purple sneakers. By her feet was a backpack, an incredibly faded scruffy blue cap, and a grey hoodie.

"At your service." She smiled, offering her hand.

Alex shook her hand without giving her a second glance, instead turning his attention to Ethan. He pulled the files he had been given in London and drew out the second half of the mission file, as well as the other agent's file.

"I don't know who I'm working with, but if the kid could leave so we can get down to business that would be great." He said tossing the files onto the desk and opening the door, pushing her out into the hallway.

Ignoring her indignant yells Alex turned to Brooke, who was looking at him with a smirk on his face.

"Thank you for that Alex, I'm sure you have plenty of questions about the mission, but sadly something has come up. Your new partner will explain. You're pretty well matched in skill and experience so they are fully competent at heading up the beginning stages of the mission." Alex knew that it would not be wise to go against the more experienced man's wishes, from the last time Alex was here he knew that Ethan Brooke knew what he was doing.

"Fiona, could you please send Agent Smith in, Alex is ready to meet her."

The door opened two seconds later, and the tiny ten-year-old he had shoved out earlier stormed back in, stopping in front of Brooke's desk. Her jaw was clenched, hand curled into tight fists, someone had pissed her off, and Alex was feeling really sorry for whoever did.

"Permission to punch an idiot sir?" She asked. Alex noticed that her voice was different from any of the other Australians that he had met, her vowels were shorter, the words more compressed than the drawn out Australian accent. But he honestly had no idea where she was from, it certainly wasn't an accent that he recognised.

"No, you can not punch Agent Rider, we discussed this earlier." He sighed, leaning back in his chair. "You have a very long mission ahead of you I am sure some opportunity will present itself. In the meantime, I have a call to make and you have a bus to catch."

At this the girl grinned and relaxed, she turned and looked at Alex with the most devious smile he had seen since Tom had suggested blowing up their schools empty broken down pool... and then proceeded to do so without leaving any evidence. Sometimes Alex wondered if his friend would be better off being the spy.

Without saying a word the kid spun on her heel and walked out the door. Alex followed her quickly after Brooke shooed him out, he ran down the hall after her, surprised at how fast the tiny girl moved. Even for a ten-year-old she was small, she couldn't be any bigger than 4'5, which compared to his height of 6'9 meant that the top of her head was probably level with the bottom of his ribcage.

Her previous smile was replaced by a scowl the moment he caught up to her. He had been right about her only reaching her midriff, but with the anger rolling off her it was Alex who felt four feet tall.

Okay, so maybe he screwed up throwing her out of her own meeting like that. How was he to know that a little kid would be his partner? Alex supposed that he should probably apologise or something, but he would wait until the girl spoke. they continued walking trough a maze of halls, up and down stairs and through courtyards. He had given up keeping track of where they were when they headed underground for the fourth time

"I'm Jackie by the way," She said out of nowhere, startling Alex who had become accustomed to the silence of the past few minutes. There was still an unmistakable bite to her voice.

The name was close enough to edge his thoughts to the Jack he once knew, who died for him, who he killed. The line was blurred between guilt and something else. He pushed out the intruding thoughts, the threat of a trip into the darkest corners of his mind subsiding with them.

"And just because I'm short doesn't mean I'm a kid. I've done some diggin' mate, I have just as much experience as you."

He was again struck by the oddity of her accent, the strangeness of it. There was something about Jackie altogether that knocked him off balance, left him teetering on a cliff's edge, it scared him. It wasn't just the name she shared with a person he knew. The way she held herself, the way she walked, talked moved, it all screamed a thousand different things. There were the sharp logical movements of a hardened soldier, but at the same time, she had the grace of a dancer, a fluidity to her that sang soft songs of peace and serenity, a bounce to every other step that carried the freedom of a young child. Worst of all was the bits he could see in himself, the twitching of fingers to hidden weapons every time his steps fell closer to her, the quick eyes scanning and running a thousand possibilities every time they hit a new hallway, accompanied by that coiled tight tenseness.

There was doubting that Jackie was indeed a spy.

He came to the realisation at the same time that they came to a door, a blank grey steel door four or five levels below ground. There wasn't anything written on it except 'R&D - Specialist Division' in black block letters.

"I'll go in and grab the stuff I need," Jackie said, bending down to pick the lock on the door. "and before you say anything smart arse this is the only way of getting in and you don't know Russell's security systems anywhere near enough to get through them alive."

Alex waited for what felt like a small eternity before Jackie came out with a bag slung across her shoulders. he raised an eyebrow at the troubled look on her face, but as soon as her eyes met to his, it changed to a scowl.

It was at this moment that both of the teenage spies made a decision that in four months, two weeks and three days, they would deeply regret. Alex looked down at her youth, her skin-deep innocence. Jackie looked at his rudeness, his underestimation of her because if anyone could understand who she was _it was him_. He saw someone in over their head that would drag him down. She saw another person she had to prove herself to. He felt the hurt from her name and the memories that came with it. She felt the hurt of his mistrust and denial. So they focused these feelings into weapons, weapons that would grow strong with hate and silence.

-#-#-

The door slammed open and closed, making Maria look up from where she was cooking dinner.

"Well fuck you too arsehole!" Jackie shouted. Maria could see that her face was red and there was a steely mix of hatred and determination in her body language, clenched fists and clenched jaw, eyes blazing and breathing like she had just raced back to back to back. Her young charge stormed off towards the stairs leading down into the basement.

Maria was giving her half an hour to punch the anger out before she dragged her ass upstairs.

She didnt expect the knock on the door, or to open it to a teenage boy also seething with anger. Maria though that the English agent wasn't coming until tonight, but here he was, spitting mad as the girl downstairs. She rubbed her forehead with a sigh, pushing up her square framed glasses, and pointed to the corner of the living room where another punching bag was set up.

"I'm giving you both thirty minutes to sort your shit out and blow off steam. After that, we'll have dinner." She said. "There are gloves and bandages under the window seat, your bags are in your room, upstairs and third on the left."

Maria noticed that he looked a little stunned at how fast she had assessed the situation, and found a situation, but slowly he walked out and up the stairs. A few seconds later she heard music drifting up from downstairs.

Maria had found out early that Jackie could have trouble expressing emotions, so together they had found a solution; make a playlist for what she's feeling so people can have a little warning. And maria recognized the opening beat of hit and run from LOLO, which was the list she used when she was close to blowing up like Mt Vesuvius.

She was just about to go downstairs and talk to her, when the phone let out a shrill ring.

"Hello?" She asked. There was no need to state her name, the only people with the number for the house knew who she and the girl she protected were.

 _"Hey Maria, Jackie home yet? We got a call in, camp starts tomorrow, we have three units who are supposed to help her and whoever's coming from wherever prepare for the next crazy death-defying mission out at lake Wathe."_ Rex said, sounding slightly stressed and a little tired.

Rex was the leader of the only SAS unit in the world to have a teenage girl as a fifth member. He was probably the person most opposed to Jackie being an Agent for ASIS, it had taken six weeks of solid training before he begrudgingly admitted that Jackie was capable enough, and focused on getting her prepared for the most dangerous occupations you could get as an adult, let alone an eleven-year-old.

"He's Brittish and he's here already. Haven't you boys only just gotten in from god knows where yourselves? how about you come over for dinner?"

 _"Yeah, home cooked anything sounds good. We'll be there in an hour, though Bounce might want to bring his family. Sarah's gonna make me bring ours if you really want us over."_

"Well we'll make a barbie out of it, I've only just started making some bread. And hey, maybe DJ will have some luck getting through Pixie's skull if I don't."

 _"Ha! She having trouble mixing her job and the rowing?"_

"I think it's more with the other agent, they came in arguing. Though the age-old method of punching it out seems to be working," Maria replied with a smirk looking over her shoulder to the new kid who had started walloping the bag, he had plugged in headphones and wrapped his hands up. "At least until they speak to each other again."

 _"Yeah well if he keeps being a prick let him know he's got the Aussie SAS to answer to, all of it."_

"I would normally tell you to do it yourself, but we are supposed to be working with him not threatening him. Round up the gang and tell Sarah I've got bread and dessert covered, I'll see you in an hour."

 _"See ya Chief"_ Came the laughing reply from the other end of the line, followed by a click.

Dinner plans might be sorted but Maria still had no idea what to do about the teens, getting them calmed down was something she needed to do.

CRASH

And fast, unless she wanted something other than a punching bag thrown through a window.

-#-#-

 _Houston we have chapter three! It only took four re-writes this time but we got there, and hey, it's the biggest chapter to date at least. In other news: WE HAVE OC'S (please don't steal them) Maria, Jackie, Rex, someone called DJ and Someone Rex knows called Sarah! Jackie is probably the most interesting, back story wise, but you will just have to read and find out more about that won't you?_

 _xox - Silence_


	4. Chapter 4

Jackie was pissed. Or as one of the few friends she had who was actually around her age would say; Jackie is ten seconds from obliterating everything within a square kilometer. The last time she had been this mad, someone had tried to run her crew out of their lane during an A final, breaking stroke seats blade, Jackie had thrown her spanner at their Cox, which she complained about for the rest of the regatta, and they came in second place. They would have won by boat lengths if it wasn't for the idiot.

Normally Jackie's solution was to punch the everloving shit out of something, but sparring with a twat named Alex was highly unrecommended, due to _both_ their backgrounds - his she was still mostly unclear on - Brooke had sworn her off sparring with him until they go to know each other. Because that would help with everything. The aforementioned twat had also stolen the one punching bag she liked, and Jackie was relatively sure Maria was in the process of calling in backup, wich would be _fantastic_ , if not for the fact that there was a giant British prat in her living room.

Today was becoming worse and worse, so in an attempt to help her calm down she had invited Lucy around to throw things at her. Not what most people called their friends for on a Friday night, but it was common enough for both of them. A mutual stress relief.

"Aren't you supposed to be dodging these things?" Her friend laughs, earthy brown eyes sparkling at the sight of Jackie being hit for the third time by a ball, normally Lucy counted it a personal victory if she grazed her. "That is why they're called _dodge_ balls right?"

"Har har," Jackie growls out leaping over one before ducking another, missing a third that rebounds off the wall and knocks the wind out of her, earning anther sharp bark of laughter from Lucy. Her friend was standing at one end of the 'court' - a spare space in the bunker the size of a two car garage, next to a basket full of various sized 'dodge' balls, none of which were actual dodgeballs. If it was relatively round and Lucy had a chance of throwing it, it was added to the pile. Jackie was annoyed had put in a bloody medicine ball. And also wondering how the hell she threw it that fast.

"I should be filming this, I swear the last time I saw you this flustered was when G-J told you she had gotten a tattoo. Now that was funny." Lucy said, passing one the from hand to hand before lobbing it at Jackie.

Jackie just shot her a glare and caught the tennis ball, sending like a bullet from a gun back at Lucy, who yelped and hit the floor when it smacked into her shoulder.

"You're lucky I'm calm enough to aim properly," Jackie said, giving her a pointed glare as Lucy stood up and brushed herself off. "a flick of my wrist and you'd have a black eye. Now let's see if you can actually hit me square on."

They spent a few more minutes playing 'dodgeball', before Lucy walked over to the middle of the floor and sat down, patting the ground next to her for Jackie to take a seat. She relented by flopping down next to her, an arm thrown over her face. They sat like that for a few minutes. Each trying to find the words for what they wanted to say.

"Come on, you've burnt off enough energy to not go out looking for some moron to beat up, so spill. What's got you so riled up this fine, fine afternoon?" Underneath the jovial tune, Lucy sounded concerned. And after being Jackies closest friend for the past three years, it took a lot to get her to worry, they both knew it wasn't because she didn't care for her, but constantly worrying about someone who was flinging themselves in the line of danger was only going to drive Lucy mad.

Jackie was tempted to just ignore her, ignore everything going on in her head, ignore the sheer enormity of what was to come, but past experience knew that she would weasel it out anyway. Lucy could make her life highly uncomfortable if she wanted to. There were only so many times someone could deal with finding a swan in their cubby.

"What's the problem." Lucy prodded. Lucy was good at prodding, a fact that annoyed Jackie to no end. World class spy who can withstand various interrogation techniques, spend weeks in the hands of the enemy without saying a thing, but as soon as Lucy gave her that look she was putty in her hands.

There was a long pause between them while Jackie gathered her words, she knew lucy would give her time, so long as she came out and said what was on her mind.

"Do you remember the bombing that happened a while back?" Jackie said with a sigh. The upcoming mission promised to be long, which was annoying given that Jackie had already spent two months gathering intel for it, it officially started in two and a half weeks.

"I'm guessing that has something to do with why you've been busier than usual lately?" Lucy said stretching out on the floor next to her. "And why you're going more batty than you usually do in the lead up to the rowing season starting."

"That's not what I'm getting at." Jackie sighed, running a hand through her short hair. It was long enough that she could put it in a tiny half ponytail now. Too long by her standards, she would have to get it cut soon, maybe she could get one of the girls at rowing to do it.

"So what, a new mission even though all hands are on deck trying to figure out who bombed 'La Bombonera'?" Lucy said interrupting her train of thought. "That sounds more like a tongue twister rather than a terrorist attack." She muttered to herself.

"Well, all spare hands bar mine." Jackie replied

"So you've been busy as a buzzy bee for what reason exactly?"

"They want me for a new mission, you know the Junior Olympics thing coming up?"

"Ooh yes, the thing that has Coach more het up than a rooster in a hen house. Sounds thrilling to me, I've always wanted to go to the Caribbean!"

"Well ASIS and MI6 think that there is something a little off about it. So I'm being sent in with another agent, deep cover." Jackie explained, sitting up to look at Lucy. "Also it's in the Mediterranean."

"Holy shit, MI6 is a thing?" Lucy exclaimed jumping back slightly. "I thought that was just a gimmick Hollywood made up, you know, like Egypt being full of white people." Her friend looked stumped. Jackie allowed herself a grin at that, getting Lucy to be quiet for a change was hard. Impossible really, she was the queen of motor mouths.

"No, MI6 is real. The only other teenage spy in the world works for them. He's a prick."

"Brittish boy upstairs? He's hot." Lucy purred as she propped herself up on her elbow.

"Lucy!"Jackie could honestly say she should have seen that coming. Lucy's pickiness could rival that of a two-year-olds at dinner time. She took nothing other than what she deemed perfection, whether that be her rowing or food or who she wanted to flirt with. Jackie groaned, knowing that the coming months had just become a little harder.

"Oh please its true and you know it. Why don't you walk me through what happened this afternoon?" Lucy said bumping their shoulders together.

"Where do I even begin."

-#-#-

 _Six hours ago - ASIS HQ - Perth_

Jackie was well aware of Alex staring her down while she went into Russel's work room. It irked her to no end, first shoved out of her own meeting, and now the fifth degree from someone who barely had a months experience on her. She was already running through a thousand ways to knock him on his ass, and hopefully down a peg or ten, despite the fact she was under strict instruction to do _no such thing_. That just meant that she had to be a little more, _creative_ , in her approach.

The door clicked. She could practically feel Alex rolling his eyes behind her as Jackie slipped in, closing it before Alex could get a look inside the room. Russel was known for helping people to 'forget' what they were looking for in his room. Or who and where they were. The only things that slipped in and out were noise and Jackie.

"Oi Russ, I'm here for the new toys you've made me." She called out into the cavernous space. It was almost empty at the moment, the majority of Russ's helpers clocked out over the weekends so only three were left to keep running tests on various gadgets that the department was working on. In a far corner, she saw a woman dive behind a heat shield as one of her tests exploded.

"Hello, there misfit, be with you in _one_ minute." Said Russ from where he was flat on his back tinkering with the underside of a rusty Ute. Jackie walked closer till she could actually see his neon pink overalled legs sticking out from the Ute. She always wondered how he could tell it was her, or that the door had even opened what with the cacophony of sounds made by tools and machines going on, as well as the loud orchestral music pouring out of a few sub-woofers.

"Yeah well some of us have crap to get done, so could you hurry it up on the cruddy old rust bucket?" She said giving his leg a small kick.

Russ rolled out and pouted at her, frowning up at the young spy through his shaggy blond hair, and poked his tongue out at her. Jackie could have sworn that he had a thousand more freckles than the last time she saw him two weeks ago, despite the fact he spent most of his time inside. He pulled himself back under the indeed rust covered Ute, muttering about 'lack of appreciation' and 'total misunderstanding of skill'

She just ignored him. Waiting for a minute before wandering deeper into the chasm like room dubbed by most who worked for ASIS 'the caves'. The network of rooms, alcoves, and walkways, as well as the fact that the only natural light source came from the skylights nearly four stories above them, did give a very cave-like feeling to the gargantuan area that produced some of the best tech on the planet. She ended up next to Sylvia, the older woman who had been working on the project that blew up when she had entered.

"Little stray has come back from the wars, how do you fare?" Sylvia boomed out. Her accent had intrigued Jackie from the moment she met her, musical and rich, the way she talked was different from the Australians she had met and what she could remember of the way people talked back in New Zealand, where she was born. It also didn't match anything she could think of. Sylvia was huge. She towered over Jackie, and everything about her was positively wild, from her hair which changed colour every month - currently the same shade as Russ's overalls, to her bedazzled cat eye glasses and blue overalls.

"Russ is taking forever, do you think he's going to stop being a moron and give me what I'm here for before or after our new guest breaks in here." Jackie grumbled.

"Hah! You think he's trouble little one? I have a thing or two you could give him. Been working on new toys."

"Nah I'll be fine, just want to throw him through a window already. He kicked me out of my meeting!" Jackie flopped down on the chair sitting next to Sylvia's desk, letting out a long sigh and rubbing at her temples. "I can't believe I need to teach this idiot how to row like someone with four years of experience in a _month_."

"Can't be all that bad sweetheart, at least you get to stay homeside for most of this one, rather than gallivanting off around the world." Said Russ, as he came over to stand beside the two, wiping the oil and grease from his hands with an already dirty old rag. "Which means you get to see my stunning face more often, not that it will be staying stunning much longer thanks to you, little miss."

"What do you mean by that?" Jackie asked, tipping her head back to look up at him, squinting at the man beside her, a spark of mischief in her blue eyes.

"I have to set up a whole rowing company with the best tech this side of anywhere and convince your lovely coach that yes I do want to sponsor your little club. Little chance of me getting enough sleep in the coming months little miss."

Jackie let out a bark of laughter, before looking at her watch and groaning.

"Time for little one to get going, no?" asked Sylvia.

"Yeah, Maria expecting me at home. Russ do you have my new set of knives ready to go?" Jackie replied. She was excited to get the new ones after she lost half of her field ones on her last mission, it annoyed her to no end, they were some of her favourite ones to use in the field, but there was no chance to go back and get them what with the bloody factory exploding.

"Not yet, I mean if you learned how to use a gun then all of this would be easier. Come back once you get back from camp, then I'll have the time to show you the add-ons. See you later little miss, please don't kill the MI6 agent."

Jackie laughed, before heading out to the door, where she found Alex leaning against the wall, seemingly asleep. She reached down and picked up her rowing gear from where she left it, putting on the hoodie, backpack, and cap. She stepped back for a moment looking at Alex.

He was tense, ready to spring into action at the slightest disturbance. There was no doubting the fact that he was a spy, Jackie could read it all in his body language, the set of his jaw, the shadows in his eyes. Maybe she should give him another chance, she knew it would be good for her to have someone who knew what this was all like.

A fresh start, even though he had been a _bit_ of an annoying douche.

Smirking at the sleeping agent, she reached into the bag, grabbing out an apple and lobbing it at his head, successfully hitting his temple and making him jump up to his feet with a start.

"Oi! what was that for!" He cried out, glaring down at her. Jackie grinned down at him, sticking out a hand to help him up.

"Let's go," she said cheerily, scooping up the apple from where it had rolled away, and walking off down the hall. She looked over her shoulder expectantly and saw Alex shake his head before following her.

-#-#-

Twenty minutes later they had walked into Jackie's fourth favourite place on earth; Roxico Ice-Cream. The store was a wonderful reprieve from the heat, and she could barely hold back a grin when Alex sighed with pleasure as they walked into the wall of cool air. The shop was decorated in pastel colors and resembled a 50's diner minus the vehement racism.

Jackie walked straight up to the counter, bypassing the line in favour of jumping straight over the counter, to the horror of Alex and the one couple who weren't regulars there. Jackie grinned at the look that Alex was giving her, as she picked up a brown paper bag and handing it to him.

"Here, take this, I've got to pick up something for a friend, I'll be back out in two seconds." she said to him, ducking behind the door leading to the apartment above the, "Oh and ask Jonty over there for the days special, get me one too." she finished, handing him a ten dollar note and ducking through the door, scurrying up the stairs and into her closest friends house.

She picked up the brown paper sack from where Lucy said she would leave it, Jackie picked it up and stuffed it in her bag, shaking her head. Of course, Lucy would pick today to make the best use of Jackie having copious amounts of free time and get her to pick up the brownies Lucy was supposed to bring to her own damn study group. Oh well, it would only be a short detour, and they got to have some of the bet Ice-cream in Perth. She shrugged off her annoyance and went back downstairs, sliding into the booth Alex was currently sulking in, and digging into the mint choc lavender sundae that was in front of her.

"Why are we here?" Alex asked, a slight frown on his face as if the entire day had put him in a bad mood. "And how is the 'daily special' two completely different things?" he gestured between Jackies mint choc lavender sundae and his honey-fudge cookie blitz.

"Jonty knows. It's his superpower. He'll get you what you need, and that particular drink comes with a double espresso shot, which you clearly need."

At this Alex just looked offended, but begrudgingly drank up some more of his honey-fudge cookie blitz as Jackie happily tucked into her sundae.

"So what part of Australia are you from? I don't think that I've heard your accent before." He said.

Jackie giggled. "I'll tell you on the way to where I have to drop these off," she said holding up the brown paper bag. "You all good to walk and drink that?"

Alex nodded, and they left.

-#-#-

As they walked, Alex started to feel the effects of whatever he was drinking. He wasn't sure why he had trusted the stranger who made it, or more importantly why he had trusted Jackie, but at this point after the long day of flying, meeting with the head of ASIS, and Jackie. For now, he was blaming it on jet lag, and feeling slightly better with some caffeine in his system. Ben might be right about the both of them having far too much of the stuff, but when you're running on four hours sleep over the span of three days, caffeine is the best thing on the planet.

He shook his head, clearing it of the irrelevant thoughts and musings that always came forward when he was tired, and looked down to Jackie who was walking with a skip in her step. There was no way she could be a spy, at least not for anywhere as long a he had been. She was probably just some random kid they picked off the street somewhere, Alex would be surprised if she had even been overseas on a single mission. He hoped, for her sake and the sake of his sanity, that ASIS just used her to get intelligence off unsuspecting adults.

Despite the fact that it must have been getting close to thirty degrees, she had put her hoodie on shortly after they left ASIS headquarters, shoving the sleeves up to her elbows, and had her cap low over her eyes. If everything she was wearing hadn't been branded with 'BBRC' and the blue tree he would have thought she was trying to be inconspicuous.

"Still trying to figure out where I'm from?" she laughed up at him, flashing him a quick grin. "You look like your head's up in the clouds," Jackie said

"Yes, is it Sydney?" He replied, covering for the fact that he had completely forgotten that h was trying to figure out where the heck Jackie was from.

Jackie stopped stock still, looking horrified "No, definitely not. I'm from New Zealand."

"Never heard of it." Alex said shaking his head. It was bad enough he was stuck working with another kid agent in over their head, now Jackie was lying to him.

"Do I need to pull up a world map? Because I'm pretty sure they have one where we're going." She replied, before turning the conversation onto something that Alex _really_ didn't want to talk about. "So how long have you been in this business? tried to read you file, but I can speak Russian about as well as you can speak whatever language it was that they translated my file into." Jakie shook her head.

She said something after that, but Alex had stopped listening. Instead, he was forming a plan to show everyone that putting some little girl out into the field would only lead to catastrophe. Jackie looked like she was about ten, made of glass and full of hope. Alex was sure that if he so much as touched her wrong she would break. When he was her age he was having fun at school, mucking around, and wondering when his uncle would be home from his 'business trip'. At the very least he had made it to the age of fourteen before he was forced into becoming a spy.

He hoped to god that Ethan was joking when he said that they were 'evenly matched' and that Jackie was handling the beginning of the mission. if Jackie had been doing this for as long as he had, she would have started when she was seven, and there was no way she could have been raised the same way he was, there was no way she had the same skills to fall back on, he honestly doubted that she had much training, and he hoped that she was only used as a lookout.

There was no way in hell he was admitting that she reminded him of Jack.

By the time they reached a three-story brick building, that Jackie said was a local YMCA, Alex had come up with his plan, and thankfully Jackie acted exactly as he thought she would, heading into the building to drop off the brown paper bag. As soon as the door closed behind her, he disappeared into the glimmering afternoon heat of the city.

-#-#-

"So how long did it take you to find the bastard?" Lucy asked when Jackie came to the part of the story where Alex took off.

"Five minutes, I tracked him for half an hour until I saw him pay a guy to try and take my bag from me. That's not the bit that _really_ pissed me off mind you, I only started seeing red when he stepped in and tried to 'save' me." Jackie replied, sitting up from where they were lying on the floor, "The idiot thinks I'm as fragile as a newborn lamb. It's infuriating"

"Well we can infuriate him back during dinner," Lucy said, she stood up offering a hand to Jackie, pulling her to her feet.

Their footsteps echoed up the stairs, the sound rebounding off the walls of the now dark basement.


End file.
